The toilets are cleaned too often...

[wolfie]

The door of the loo is where all the germs are so once you've put your hands to the door, you've just undone any good washing your hands did.

That's one thing I'll never understand about washroom designers. Washroom has a door that opens inward (i.e. have to grab handle and pull), but has paper towels to dry hands and a trash can just inside the door (so you can grab a paper towel, have it between your hand and the handle to avoid contamination, then toss it as you leave). Bathroom is remodeled, paper towels are replaced with hot air hand dryers. You now MUST contaminate your hand when opening the door. Why can't they include in the remodel changing the swing of the door (so you can push it open with your shoulder) or replacing the door with a labyrinth (blocks sightline with nothing to touch)?

[sirwired]

That's one thing I'll never understand about washroom designers. Washroom has a door that opens inward (i.e. have to grab handle and pull), but has paper towels to dry hands and a trash can just inside the door (so you can grab a paper towel, have it between your hand and the handle to avoid contamination, then toss it as you leave). Bathroom is remodeled, paper towels are replaced with hot air hand dryers. You now MUST contaminate your hand when opening the door. Why can't they include in the remodel changing the swing of the door (so you can push it open with your shoulder) or replacing the door with a labyrinth (blocks sightline with nothing to touch)?

I was in a bathroom once with the most bizarre solution to that problem. Because hinging the door to swing outward would have required some re-architecture, the building owners affixed a large metal "U" shaped bracket to the door so you could pull it open with your forearm.

[Golden Phoenix]

The loos at the office I worked at had little dispensers on the wall that produced a sanitizing foam. You grabbed a bit of toilet paper, got some foam and wiped down the seat before sitting yourself down.

Therefore no need to hover, right?

Wrong...that place was still gross and there were always droplets on the seats.

[Marmalady]

The loos at the office I worked at had little dispensers on the wall that produced a sanitizing foam. You grabbed a bit of toilet paper, got some foam and wiped down the seat before sitting yourself down.

Therefore no need to hover, right?

Wrong...that place was still gross and there were always droplets on the seats.

Well, one of our customers has found the ideal way to avoid contact with the toilet seat.

Just stand in the middle of the shop floor and pee away to your hearts' content.

[cindybubbles]

Would using a female adapter work? Then you won't have to hover to pee.

I can understand why some people hover and it's not just because of germs. The older customers may not have much, ahem, "padding" down there, and not many public toilet seats are padded, so a-hover they will go!

[MoonCat]

Mathnerd, your story reminds me of a news story I read once about a lab somewhere that did a similar study. They found that in a public restroom, there were far more germs on the sinks, the counter around the sink, and a couple other places in the restroom, I forget where, than there were on the toilet seats.

As for the door handle, that's why I usually grab an extra piece of paper towel (if available) to open the door with. Unfortunately, I have seen MANY people sort of dabble their fingers under the water and walk out - no soap, no washing, no drying. YUCK.

[dalesys]

Everybody sing, "Loo, loo, skip to the loo..."

[Racket_Man]

I seem to remember an early episode (maybe season 2 or 3) of Mythbusters did a large enough swab test on various items (such as toilet seats cell phones, dish sponges, keyboards, door handles, etc.) to see which had the highest nastiness. They enlisted the help of a local college or highschool to get a big enough sample size.

video setup
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/my...than-a-toilet/

episode description
http://mythbustersresults.com/hidden-nasties

[Marmalady]

I have seen MANY people sort of dabble their fingers under the water and walk out - no soap, no washing, no drying. YUCK.

Tell me about it. Every day I clean off the residue from under the dryers where people don't wash and rinse their hands properly and all the remaining soap / dirt gets blown onto the tiles... eww

[KatherineB]

Dyers are awful inventions. What on earth was wrong with paper towel?

[greek_jester]

Dyers are awful inventions. What on earth was wrong with paper towel?

a) Paper towels are a traceable cost; you can point to bills and see exactly how much is spent on them. After the initial cost of installation it's hard to trace whether increased electric bills are directly related to the dryer.
b) Employees don't constantly whine to managers about having run out of dryers.
c) Dryers are "more modern and professional" /sarcasm
d) Dryers can't (without an insane amount of effort) be shoved down the loo/plughole to block them by the general public.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

a) Paper towels are a traceable cost; you can point to bills and see exactly how much is spent on them. After the initial cost of installation it's hard to trace whether increased electric bills are directly related to the dryer.
b) Employees don't constantly whine to managers about having run out of dryers.
c) Dryers are "more modern and professional" /sarcasm
d) Dryers can't (without an insane amount of effort) be shoved down the loo/plughole to block them by the general public.

I think these were the reasons why when our stores were last updated (10 years ago now) that it was decided to install the dryers in the restrooms.

Especially reason D . . . I mean, do you stuff paper towels down your toilet at home??? Plumbers aren't cheap and when you have 1000+ stores and every single one has this issue at least once/week, you can imagine how that gets expensive quickly.

[Marmalady]

IEspecially reason D . . . I mean, do you stuff paper towels down your toilet at home???

Of course people don't - I imagine that most don't take an entire roll of TP (and these are BIG rolls) out of the metal holder and dump the whole thing into their toilet either. They probably don't pick their nose and smear the results over the wall, or leave used sanitary products or disposable nappies (diapers) behind the bins, when they're at home, but then they'd have to clean it up themselves there.

Jaded? Moi?

[sirwired]

d) Dryers can't (without an insane amount of effort) be shoved down the loo/plughole to block them by the general public.

This.

At my old office, some maroon clogged the plumping with paper towels at least once a week, probably using them as ersatz toilet seat covers. This went on for MONTHS; and always the same stall, so it was probably one person failing to see the pattern.

Somebody put up a sign in that particular stall requesting that paper towels be deposited in a wastebasket, which was then placed in there. It worked.

Then somebody (maybe even the same somebody?) started putting soiled toilet paper in said wastebasket. (I know this is the norm in some countries, but it certainly isn't in the US.)

I don't think anybody ever put up a sign with paper swatches to sort out the confusion.

************

Another advantage of dryers is that the users generally do not rip the dryers into tiny pieces and throw them all over the bathroom. How DO public restrooms get so covered in paper? Every one seems to quickly accumulate a confetti of toilet paper bits and paper towels (if applicable.) How does the toilet paper end up in such tiny pieces?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Remember the slogan from women who want to breastfeed but not in the toilet as "No-one wants to eat in a toilet!"? Well, apparently some people do, as the loos in the supermarket are regularly cleaned of food detritus for example: crisp packets, chocolate wrappers, fast food paper bags, burger containers etc, and various odd food waste items like chicken bones and salad containers. A few in the bin, but most chucked on the floor and some shoved down the toilets, blocking them.